Mwangi Karimi was elected the inaugural president of Kenya Rugby Referee Association (KRRA) in an exercise that took place on Saturday, July 6 at Mash Park Hotel.
Karimi, who is the outgoing Kenya Rugby Referees Society (the precursor to KRRA), peeped his sole challenger Gregory Sang by a vote in tightly contested race that went to the second round that saw Karimi clinch the win.
In the first round, both Karimi and Sang garnered seven votes each forcing the poll to go the second round. In the tiebreaker, Karimi got three out of possible five votes available.
The elections were conducted during KRRA’s first Annual Delegates Conference that brought together 15 delegates from five regional societies. Collins Nabiswa, Edgar Ombati, and Moses Ndungu represented Nairobi, Douglas Ngetich, Victor Oduor, and Brian Kipkoech represented Rift Valley.
Barasa Wanyama, Jerim Odima, and Edwin Kagota were the Coast representatives while from Central, Dennis Wachira, Oliver Gitonga, and Jackson Kiria attended the conference. From Western, Collins Wekesa and Joseph Okongo were the representatives with third delegate Amos Wamanga missing the conference.
At the same time, Alfred Okwemba was elected unopposed as the first KRRA Secretary General while Alice Zawadi got eight votes beating her challenger Ali Shire with two votes to win the treasurer’s seat.
Veterans Sammy Kariuki, Lameck Ongati, and Damas Ogwe were nominated as KRRA’s Trustees with Constant Cap being co-opted into the Committee as Training and Development Officer.
Meanwhile, KRRA is planning a High-Performance Camp for Match Officials in Nandi ahead of the 2019 Stanbic Bank Sevens Circuit. The Camp will draw match officials from Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Zambia and will be run by World Rugby’s Rasta Rasivhenge.
-KRRA
